


Follow the lady

by Night_Queen3927



Series: Finding the Light [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: (Bring your own tissues), A LOT of research, Angst, Author is the beta, Companion Piece, Continuation, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I don't know, Kinda?, Look! A clue by four!, No Beta, POV Multiple, POV Switches, Read at Your Own Risk, Research, Revelations, Sad, Sequel, Thirdquel?, Threequel?, byot, down the research rabbit hole, emotional havoc, maybe? - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:48:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21878407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Night_Queen3927/pseuds/Night_Queen3927
Summary: What Marinette's classmates and friends do after they learn about her hospitalization and the events around it
Relationships: Alya Césaire & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire & Nino Lahiffe, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, Kagami Tsurugi & Tomoe Tsurugi, Luka Couffaine & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Kagami Tsurugi, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug's Parents, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Max Kanté, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Nino Lahiffe, Max Kanté & Markov
Series: Finding the Light [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1531703
Comments: 32
Kudos: 506





	Follow the lady

**Author's Note:**

> I'm back! I managed to get a B- in Calc 2 ✌️and finished all of my other finals! Managed to type this out in like a week in between my naps and travel back home.
> 
> Disclaimer/warning time!
> 
> #1:This is a sequel(?) to Degrees of Separation/Take my hand and turn on the light. If you don't read Take my hand and turn on the light, you will not understand what is going on. I'm not going to tell you to read because I'm not your parent/guardian to do so. However if you whine about not understanding what happened and 'That didn't happen in the show!' I will direct you to this note and laugh.
> 
> #2: As each episode of Miraculous Ladybug seems to come with a magic reset button that undos character progress, you can rest assured that I had no hand in writing them. Therefore I don't own it or make any money off of this. (Imagine if I got a pence for each hit, I would have like 8 pounds (😱) over this series at time of writing this)
> 
> #3: I'm aware that the characters might be a little OOC. I'm human(-ish) so I make mistakes. Chalk any OOC-ness up to the trauma and shock of seeing their classmate after falling down the stairs and another being charged with criminal activities.

_A common street hustle is for people to play three-card monte. The dealer will shuffle 3 cards around, one of which is the queen, often the queen of hearts. They then coax a mark lay down a bet and choose which card is the lady. Oftentimes, the dealer will win and keep the cash bet, playing all of the marks for a fool._

~-_~-_~-_~-_~-_

“Lila Rossi,” Alya whispered to herself as she typed the name into the search engine. Clicking search, she sat back in her chair and nervously nibbled on her thumbnail. Pages of results appeared, blue links glowing on the screen. She scrolled down the screen looking for a single link that would prove her right. Various headlines jumped out at her. 

_Diplomat’s daughter accused of assault_

_French Schoolgirl assaulted by diplomat’s daughter_

_Diplomats: are they worth it in the long run?_

_Diplomatic immunity and what it means_

_Immunity doesn’t waive responsibility_

“Come on,” Alya hissed, she went back up to the search bar and refined her search, adding ‘Jagged Stone cat’ to her previous search of ‘Lila Rossi’. With a click of the search button, new results spawned on the first page. One headline caught her eye _’Jagged Stone, Lila Rossi, and a cat!’_. “Jackpot!” Alya gave a quick fist pump and clicked on the link to read the article. As Alya read the article, her face became progressive more downcast as quotes jumped out at her.  
_’allergic to cats’_

_‘You kidding? Fang would eat a cat whole’_

_‘not rock and roll enough’_

Alya hissed in disappointment, going back to the search engine and changing the search parameters so that it looked for things with both Lila Rossi as well as Prince Ali.

_Prince Ali and his many charities_

Desperate to find information to back up the stories that Lila had told them about her adventures, Alya clicked on the link, chewing on her lip. Quickly, she scanned the article looking for anything related to Lila or the charities they had collaborated on.

_’Support charities for children’_

_‘Father won’t let me endorse more than 1 type of charity at a time’_

_‘only the royal family lives in the palace’_

“It must be a fluke. Lila must have just asked them to not mention her. She is very modest about her deeds!” Alya tried to rationalize the lack of results to herself. Typing quickly, making minor spelling mistakes, she looked up ‘Lila Rossi and Ladybug’. The first result that came up was Alya’s own Ladyblog, all of the following were just news article. They covered the Akuma that Ladybug had faced and all of them had included the same quote from Ladybug.

_’I could never be friends with a civilian knowing that Hawkmoth could come after them and their families. That is why Queen Bee is no longer active since she revealed her identity placing her family in danger. I recommend never lying about being friends with me because Hawkmoth will come after you to be a hostage._

The articles were all saying the same thing. That Ladybug didn’t know the victim who had been Akumatized. That Ladybug has no civilian friends

_One is happenstance. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is a pattern._

“Marinette was right. Lila is lying about everything.” Alya buried her face in her hands, shoulders shaking slightly. Suddenly her shoulders tensed, and her fingernails bit into her face. “I told her to get sources proving that Lila was a liar! I should’ve done that! I’m the reporter not her!”

~-_~-_~-_~-_~-_

“I do not understand, Markov.” Max said, furiously typing numbers into his calculator. “According to my calculations, the likelihood of Lila Rossi actually doing everything that she has claimed that she has done is so low that it is statistically impossible. However no one else has made any sign that they believe that she is lying.” 

“Are you inquiring as to whether your calculations are incorrect or if your classmates have neglected to tell you about Lila Rossi lying?” Markov said, tilting his head to the side to indicate his question. “As you have a remarkably high IQ and have successfully programmed me, a true Artificial Intelligence, it is highly unlikely that you have made errors in your calculations.”

“So logically, that means that my classmates either believe all of the stories that she has shared with us, or that they don’t and haven’t informed me in any way.” Max set his calculator down on his desk and spun his chair to start typing on his laptop. 

“You have omitted a few other options, Max.” Markov piped up, swooping in front of the laptop screen. “There could be a mix of those who believe that Lila is lying and those who believe that she is telling the truth. There is also the fact that some could be deliberately ignoring anything that doesn’t match what is being told because they like hearing her stories.”

Max paused typing as he mulled over those options in his head. Pulling on his lip, his fingers tapped lightly on the keyboard, not hard enough to actually type anything on his open document. “Those are also a possibility. But it would be hard to reconcile that with the concept that I have that the class shares important information with others. I would consider that fact that a classmate of ours lies without remorse for personal benefit is be important information.”

“Many sources online agree with that.” Markov stated, beaming an image of a site bearing the words ‘What to do with a serial liar?’ onto the wall.

Suddenly, Max’s eyes lit up behind his glasses, and he started mumbling at a rapid fire pace. “If we can approach this from an analytical standpoint, I can break Lila down into her respective components! Then we can analyze the likelihood of Lila Rossi lying based on the influence that her components have on her personality”

“How will you quantify all the different facets of Lila Rossi though? According to the research papers that I have access to, humans beings are intrinsically uncategorizable with regards to their personality types.” Markov asked, a question mark appearing on his facial screen. It flashed on and off a few times to show that he was considering different angles.

“That is true, but we can take facts that we know are definitely true about her, and evaluate those and the impact that would be most likely to occur.” Max started typing on the keyboard. “For example, we know definitely that Mme. Rossi is a diplomat that has been stationed in different areas. We also know that Lila traveled with her mother, indicating that their travels would be extremely similar. If we can determine how long Mme. Rossi stayed in one area and how often she moved…”

“We can then factor the standardly acknowledged effect of constant moving on the adolescent brain into our calculations, as well as the fact that she would’ve been a social outsider for a while with her classmates.” Markov chirped, his processors already whirring through thousands of databases in search of news articles regarding a diplomat with the last name Rossi that was from Italy..

Max started drawing up a formula that could estimate the probability of Lila lying based on the information that Markov was searching for.

“Max?”

“What is it, Markov?”

“I believe that my processors may be faulty. I can only find 5 articles on an Italian diplomat with the last name Rossi.” Markov projected the limited articles that he could find onto the wall behind Max’s computer. 

“Are you sure, Markov?” Max scanned the articles, looking for anything that would factor into his calculations.

“Yes, Max. I used all of the major search engines as well as the newspapers most likely to report on Italian diplomats.” Markov confirmed, a sixth page popping up on the wall. The page showed the multitude of commands that Markov had input.

“These are all reputable news sites. They all say the same thing. Mme. Rossi is a relatively inexperienced diplomat. She served as a diplomat in Spain for 2 years and then just this year, she came here to serve as a Italian diplomat to France.”

“Does this mean that we cannot use our formula for calculating Lila Rossi’s trustworthiness?” Markov asked, cocking his head to the side.

“This irrefutably proves that Lila was lying. If her mother has never been to Achu, then she couldn’t have stayed with Prince Ali and helped with his green programs. We also know that Jagged Stone has had Fang for a while, so the likelihood of Lila saving Jagged’s kitten from a plane runway is highly unlikely, because Fang would eat the kitten.”

“How does that saying go, Max? ‘ _Jamais deux sans trois_ ’?” Markov asked, trying to utilize the saying correctly.

“Yes. We have positively identified at major 2 things that Lila has lied about which means that the likelihood of her having lied about more things is at approximately 96.73%.”

“What does that mean, Max?”

“It means that Marinette was correct and I was foolish for not believing her about human behaviour.” Max put his head down on his desk and started weeping. “I can’t believe that none of us thought that Lila might’ve lied until Marinette was harmed.

~-_~-_~-_~-_~-_

“Babe, slow down. What are you talking about?” Nino asked, hand fiddling with his baseball cap.

“LILA LIED, Nino! I couldn’t find any news articles that backed up anything that Lila said that she did!” Alya wailed over the phone, her voice choked up with tears and hoarse from crying previously.

“I figured as much, Alya.” Nino sighed. He collapsed on his bed, and started throwing a ball up and down in the air.

“What do you mean?”

“After Mme. Mendeleiev told us that Lila was expelled for truancy, that made me think that if she could lie about big things like traveling, what about the smaller things. I remembered a lot of the people in the music and film business that she bragged about knowing, so I looked up where they were when Lila said that she met them. Some of them were dead when Lila said that she met them, others were in a different country, a few were working on a closed set which meant that it would’ve been impossible for Lila to get in to meet them. The majority of them, there was just no way that Lila could’ve met them because of location or their security.” Nino explained, ticking off each point on his fingers. He started throwing the ball at the wall, trying to work out his frustrations in a way that wouldn’t hurt anyone. “I figured that if she was willing to lie about knowing those people, she would be willing to lie about knowing other people, then lying about where she’s been, then lying about what she’s done. It is just like a twisted game of dominos.”

“Can you come over, Nino? I need to talk to someone who understands what is happening.” Alya practically begged.

“I can’t. I told my parents what had happened. Mama has grounded me. I’m not allowed to do anything other than school until Mama finds out the extent of Lila’s lies.” Nino apologized, closing his eyes. “She was furious when she found out that I stopped talking to Marinette because of what Lila said.” Nino let out a soft chuckle, “In her words, ‘You and Marinette grew up in the same diapers, why would you believe a new girl over her?!’”

“Nino!” A female voice called into the room. “End your call, your Mother and I are taking your phone away for your grounding.”

“Yes, Mama!” Nino called back. He turned back to his conversation with Alya, “Sorry, Alya but I need to go now. Can you tell the others that my phone got taken away? Thanks, babe. Love you.

“I will, Nino. Love you too.” Alya sniffled and hung up on the call.

“Mama, I’m done with my call.” Nino called, offering up his phone to the woman who had come into his room.

“Do you understand why your Mother and I are taking away your phone?” The woman asked, sitting down on Nino’s bed.

“Because I’m grounded?” Nino’s answer sounded more like a question, higher at the end.

“No. It is because you didn’t do anything to communicate with anyone about any doubts that you had about Mlle. Rossi.” The woman stroked Nino’s head, “You are a brilliant child, one with extraordinary social instincts, so I know that you had to have some doubts about Mlle. Rossi. But because you didn’t mention anything, we couldn’t help you and maybe mitigate everything that has happened.”

“But what does my phone have to do with this?” Nino asked, tilting his head to look into his mama’s eyes

“Your mother and I will be enforcing a time every evening when all of us sit down and talk about any worries and doubts that we have. The loss of your phone is meant to encourage you to talk with us, to communicate. Once we know that you are communicating again, you will have your phone back.” WIth that the woman plucked the phone from Nino’s grip. She bent over and planted a kiss on his head. “I love you, Nino. Never doubt that.”

~-_~-_~-_~-_~-_

Luka was sitting on his bunk on Liberty, strumming his guitar. The music that was being created by the guitar was discordant and melancholy, a melody that was broken and sad. 

“Mama, will Luka be alright?” Juleka asked her mother, both peeking in through the cracked door of Luka’s room.

“I don’t know, Juleka. His song...it is bent right now.” Anarka confessed, her eyes examining Luka and her ears pricked to hear any further discordant chords in the song. “This can go a few different ways.”

“Can we help him fix his song?” Juleka asked, nibbling on her lip and running a hand through her hair.

Suddenly, Luka ran his fingers across all 6 of the strings on his guitar, creating a harsh note, one that echoed through the room. He hung his head, tears dripping from his eyes to land on his prized guitar.

“No, Juleka.” Anarka answered, ushering her daughter away from her son’s room to give him space. She cast a final look over her shoulder at the door, and continued talking. “Luka must pull the notes of his song back together on his own. It is just a question of if he’ll find the motivation to do so before his song becomes irreparable.”

“Marinette.” Luka murmured, hand tightening on the neck of his guitar. He started moving his fingers automatically, strumming out a song. “Your song should be exuberant, resonant, full of life.” The melody coming from the guitar shifted to reflect Luka’s words, becoming brighter and faster. “Your song should never be so muted, so thin, so flat.” Again the melody shifted to reflect Luka’s words, becoming softer and quieter.

Abruptly, Luka stood up and swung his guitar over his back, the strap resting across his chest. He grabbed his helmet and left his room, his door slamming shut behind him. As he passed by Anarka, he informed her, “I’m going to visit Marinette in the hospital. I’ll be back before the sun sets.” With that information shared, he went onshore and set out for the hospital.

As he walked, he murmured to himself, “Don’t worry, Marinette. I’ll be there soon to help you.”

___________

“Hey, Marinette.” Luka whispered as he sat down in the chair pulled up by her bedside. Next to him, Tom Dupain dozed in a chair far too small for his large stature. Across from Tom was Sabine Cheng who was clutching her daughter’s hand, and whispering pleas for her to wake up soon. “Do you remember when we first met? Your song was one of the most beautiful things that I had ever heard.” Luka started strumming Marinette’s song on his guitar as he continued to talk. “It hurts so bad to see you like this and hear your song. It is so sad and nothing like you are.” The melody that Luka created started to turn sadder, more mournful. 

“Don’t worry, Luka.” Sabine said, a sweet smile on her lips and her eyes brimming with tears. “Marinette is strong. I’m sure that she’ll wake up. She still has so much that she wants to do.”

“I know Mme. Cheng. Her song is still strong, it hasn’t started to fade-out.” Luka replied, eyes gentle and smile sad. “As long as we don’t give up on her, she won’t give up on us.”

~-_~-_~-_~-_~-_

“Okaasan. I would like to request permission to visit Marinette-chan in the hospital.” Tsurugi Kagami requested, tilting her head in deference to her mother.

“Marinette-chan is in the hospital?” Tsurugi Tomoe asked, her head jerking so that her face was facing Kagami. “Why was I not informed about this?”

“Okaasan, Marinette-chan just entered the hospital yesterday. You were at a business meeting and gave everyone strict orders to not disturb you unless it was an emergency. I asked Takahashi-san and he determined that my friend being in the hospital was not worth interrupting your business meeting.” Kagami replied, folding her hands in front of her body and holding her head high.

“I will have to inform Takahashi-san that anything regarding your friends are to be passed on to me regardless of where I am.” Tsurugi Tomoe said, her bokken tapping on the floor. “Of course, you are permitted to visit Marinette-chan. Please wait for a bit, I will have the car called and we will visit her together.”

“Arigato, Okaasan.” Kagami bowed, and then folded to the ground to sit in seiza.

Tsurugi Tomoe departed the room, bokken stretched in front of her to prevent her from running into anything. Her voice called out, “Takahashi-san, please bring the car around the front and wait for me and Kagami. We will depart in 15 minutes.”

___________

Tsurugi Tomoe led the way into the hospital, her head held high and her bokken tapping on the ground in front of her. Kagami followed behind her, head high and nibbling ever so slightly on her lips. 

“Okaasan, Cheng-san informed me that Marinette-chan was in room 27 on the third floor.” Kagami spoke up, “The elevators are on your left in about 3 meters.”

“Arigato, Kagami.” Tomoe went the 3 meters then sharply turned left, striding straight up to the elevator doors. Calling the elevator, she took a step back to await its arrival. Kagami stood to her left, a step behind her. When the elevator arrived, the two women waited until it had unloaded its passengers and then boarded. Tomoe reached out, her fingers dancing over the buttons until she found the button for the third floor and pressed.

The elevator went upwards in silence, beeping when it arrived at the third floor and the two women disembarked. “Which way is Marinette-chan’s room, Kagami?”

“To your right, Okaasan. Would you like me to inform you when we reach it?”

“Yes, Kagami.” 

With the conversation finished, they walked down the hallway, until Kagami spoke up, “Marinette-chan is in the room to your right, Okaasan.” 

Tomoe pivoted to the right and rapped sharply on the door. “Dupain-san, Cheng-san. This is Tsurugi Tomoe, the mother of Kagami. We have come to visit Marinette-chan, if that is amenable to you.”

The door opened, Sabine Cheng standing behind it, her eyes red-rimmed and teary. “Of course, you can visit Marinette, Tsurugi-san and Kagami-chan. Any friends of Marinette and their families are more than welcome.” Sabine stood back, allowing both Tomoe and Kagami to enter into the small room. “Please be quiet. The doctors say that she is in a coma right now and that it is better to keep any stimulus quiet and calm.” With that request issued, Sabine went back to her chair and held onto Marinette’s hand.

Kagami stepped forward, standing at the side of Marinette’s bed. She sucked in a breath, unable to believe how wane that Marinette appeared. Her face which was normally adorned with a blush because of how easily she was embarrassed, was pale and lacking the pink that normally suffused her cheeks. Her ever present pigtails were gone as well, her hair fanned around her face, displaying a clean-shaven strip on the side of her head. “Oh, Marinette. How could this have happened to you? Who would’ve wanted to do this to do? You who do everything you can for others without asking anything from them.” Kagami sat on a chair next to the bed and continued talking to Marinette in a voice so soft that you had to strain to make out any words.

“Cheng-san, may I inquire as to where Dupain-san is?” Tomoe asked, moving so that she was standing closer to Sabine.

“Tom? He went to grab a change of clothes from our house.” Sabine answered, only half focused on Tomoe’s question.

“Very well. I would like to extend an offer of help if any of you need it.” Tomoe said, clicking her bokken on the floor. “It is rare that Kagami finds anyone that she considers a good friend, and I would like to help any that she considers a friend in anyway that they might need.”

That caught Sabine’s attention, and she looked away from Marinette’s wan face and instead focused on Tsurugi Tomoe. “Why are you offering to help, Tsurugi-san?”

“May I sit?” Tomoe asked, her bokken tapping on an empty chair positioned at the foot of Marinette’s bed.

“Of course, Tsurugi-san.” 

With a nod of thanks, Tomoe sat in the chair and positioned her bokken over her knees. “Marinette-chan has had a wonderful impact on Kagami. She has become more open and has gained a better understanding of social situations. That alone would earn her my favor and help if needed. There is also the chance that she will suffer from some vision loss after the head injuries that she has suffered. My family is uniquely equipped to deal with vision problems so we can help her if needed.”

Kagami looked up from Marinette and added, “There is also the fact that you both own a business so it would be hard to take care of Marinette while simultaneously running a bakery. We would be willing to help take care of her while you are working.”

“Thank you for your kind offer, Tsurugi-san. I’ll talk to my husband about it.” Sabine said, stunned at the offer from a woman who was a stranger to her.

“Very well, Cheng-san. Kagami, we are going to leave in a few minutes. O-genki de, Cheng-san.” Tomoe said, giving Sabine a short bow.

“Odaiji ni, Marinette-chan.” Kagami whispered, giving Marinette’s hand a squeeze as she stood up. Turning to face Sabine, Kagami bowed and said, “O-genki de, Cheng-san.”

With their farewells made, Tsurugi Tomoe and Kagami both left the room to take their car back to their house.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this and I hope that you enjoyed/liked/found tolerable this story
> 
> As always, feel free to tell me if I screwed up on tagging/formatting/grammar/other shit.
> 
> Tsurugi Tomoe and Kagami are canonically Japanese, so I wrote their names in the Japanese style which is family name first and then personal names. Honorifics are fairly ingrained into them, so I HC that they use them automatically unless they are actively trying to not use them. People also slip into their mother tongue when talking sometimes when they can't find a good equivalent in the secondary language which does happen to me. 'O-genki de' translates roughly to something like stay well and 'odaiji ni' translates roughly to something like get well soon, 'arigato' means thank you. The honorifics are common knowledge in the anime fandom and for those who don't know them '-san' is a title similar to Ms., Mr., Miss., while '-chan' is typically used for girls in a way to express that you are fond of them, 'Okaasan' is a rough equivalent to mom/mother, it is a little more formal/polite than kaasan. If I messed up with them, please tell me, I'm still learning.
> 
> The French saying 'Jamais deux sans trois' means never two without three which is saying that if something happens twice it while most likely happen a third time


End file.
